GOGSoc Episode VII: Game of Moans

Thank you! It is in fact happening tomorrow. I travelled back to Scotland yesterday, just to make sure there was no problem with the flights or trains, as Norway, where I was working last week, can be a bit risky in winter, travel-wise. So now I'm sitting in a decent hotel and trying to somehow get over today without totally freaking out. It's harder than I thought. Might have to go for a walk to clear my head.

As for "urgent" emails, they always make my heart stop for a second because somehow, my brain never expects anything good to come out of them, and to be fair, usually urgent stuff is not positive. Luckily, all my institutions and employers so far have been quite sparing with the "urgent" tag.

Thank you everybody who crossed their fingers - apparently it worked. I passed with minor corrections

Thank you everybody who crossed their fingers - apparently it worked. I passed with minor corrections

Thank you everybody who crossed their fingers - apparently it worked. I passed with minor corrections

Thank you everybody who crossed their fingers - apparently it worked. I passed with minor corrections

Thank you everybody who crossed their fingers - apparently it worked. I passed with minor corrections

Yet another development (for want of a better word), my mum was suddenly admitted to hospital in the early hours of Tuesday, and I have had to take on her household and carer responsibilities (as she's my brother's primary carer). I have barely any time to do any PhD work at all, and now I'm slightly thankful that my supervisor is still on sick leave.

Have anyone else had periods where they have done no PhD work (without officially interrupting your studies)? I may not be back to a full studying schedule for a few weeks or more, and I'm starting to feel very guilty about it. I can manage an hour or two per day at most right now, but hopefully I can increase that once I'm more into the swing of juggling my new - and hopefully temporary - commitments.

Yet another development (for want of a better word), my mum was suddenly admitted to hospital in the early hours of Tuesday, and I have had to take on her household and carer responsibilities (as she's my brother's primary carer). I have barely any time to do any PhD work at all, and now I'm slightly thankful that my supervisor is still on sick leave.

Have anyone else had periods where they have done no PhD work (without officially interrupting your studies)? I may not be back to a full studying schedule for a few weeks or more, and I'm starting to feel very guilty about it. I can manage an hour or two per day at most right now, but hopefully I can increase that once I'm more into the swing of juggling my new - and hopefully temporary - commitments.

So sorry to hear about your mum

I have had two hospital admissions (one 3 weeks one 3 days) and have taken 2 times off (a month at a time for both) and this was informally done meaning it wasn't officially interrupted but counted towards my overall attendance i.e. I get those 2 months back as opposed to being taken from the 3/4 years

Really sorry to hear about your mum, but please don't feel bad at all. I have to keep a diary of my mental health for uni and that indicates that most years since I started the diary (in Jan 2016), I've lost at least half an academic year to my mental health. There was one year where I basically did nothing the whole year and then we did a retrospective interruption (2017-18) but all the other years, I've just informally had a lot of time not doing much PhD work at all Admittedly, I am part-time (which takes the pressure off), but still!

Thank you I'm hoping the university allow me to stick this month onto the end of my PhD given my supervisor's absence, as I'm allowed to go on for a fourth year if need be.

Thank you She'll probably be out of hospital early next week all being well, but she won't be up to much. Plus she also has to have an operation in a few weeks/a month (which is related to her hospital stay), so that's another couple of weeks I'm 'out' for while she recovers post-op (hopefully at home).

In a way I feel grateful that this is all happening now rather than later down the line, as I'm yet to officially kick off my PhD and only doing reading at the mo. It would have been much more difficult had I been preparing for/going to conferences or gathering data. The only thing I'm slightly worried about is that I need to go up to register when my supervisor returns, and that may coincide with my mum's op.

I'm sure if you explain the circumstances to uni, they can hold off the registration a little longer

So sorry to hear about your mum being hospitalised and your caring responsibilities, @PhoenixFortune - I hope she recovers soon. As for the PhD, nobody I know ever managed to work 3 years on it at full steam, and universities are well aware that people do fall ill, have other responsibilities, and so on. I caught salmonellae early on and lost almost 4 weeks in my first term, but it wasn't a problem at all. Especially if your supervisor is on sick leave, I'd expect the university to be very lenient. Funding bodies can be a bit trickier, but some of the main UK funding bodies recently announced they were going to introduce paid sick leave for PhD students, so even there should be some leeway.

My supervisor is still on sick leave (it keeps being extended each week) so she's now been off for over a month. I think I mentioned before that I haven't even had my first official meeting with her yet, and my only instruction has been to 'continue reading'. While I understand that reading is a huge part of any PhD, it does feel bizarre doing it without a clear goal in mind.

Some of my friends have advised me to put pressure on the uni to do something for me (as I've already paid this year's fees in full), but I don't really know what good that would do. Without even an initial progress plan, it's also difficult to know what to ask of my second supervisor (who isn't in the same department as my primary supervisor).

Does anyone have any advice?

I've no idea how you'd go about doing this but I think once it is clear how much time you've lost due to your supervisor being unwell, you should ask either for the course to be extended, and/or a refund of money for the time duration lost? Hard to action any of that until your supervisor is back t work though, as you dunno how long they'll be off for in total right now, I'm guessing?